Shaare Shalom Event - Rabbi David Shelby

Good morning to everybody. >> It's the last Friday in deal. Everybody on a Friday in deal at least for the kids who have school. God bless. It's a sunny day. There's so much to do. But it's alul. And we know alul is the time to focus on what's important. The fact that we are here this morning is greatness in Hashem's eyes. The fact that our dear Leo opened up his home to have us. The fact that you have so many people on this table working behind the scenes, something unfathomable. They're not going to work. They're not spending time relaxing on the beach, going to the pool. They're worried about Hashem's home and they're putting all their energy into it. And it's impossible, as I said by our barbecue, for those who weren't there, it's impossible to drive on a road without the people who worked hard to pave the road beforehand for us to go smooth sailing. So, we thank you so much. By the way, last week we read in the para about the kosher animals. The sign for a kosher animal is split hooves and re- chewing its cud. And our rabbis tell us that's what a Jew is. Number one, we hold on to tradition. We're reweing. We're regoing over and connected to tradition. But we have to move forward with our two front legs. I give a woman's class besides the shalom women's class, a young newly married woman's class who they're going to join our women's classm. And we're giving it for years. It started off when they were about 18, 19. and I spoke by one of their friends weddings and they heard my speech so they decided rabbi let's make a class so we were giving a class every single week for years they were single and as they're going forward they're getting married having children and then corona came hashem should protect am is and we're still giving the class but instead of indoors, we're giving it outdoors. It wasn't such a beautiful backyard like this one, but it was beautiful. And the hostess who is newly married, she was married only about two weeks and she's already hosting a class in her home. She says, "Rabbi, you see that tree over there?" And I said, "Yes, it's a magnificent tree." She said, "That tree is a proof that dreams could come true." I said, "That's nice, but how does a tree tell me that dreams come true?" She said, "Rabbi, when I was in third grade, my father bought this deal home, and that was the most magnificent tree I saw in my life. What does a third grader know about nature, about trees?" But she said, "Dad, when I get married, I'm getting married under that tree." And the father tells her in third grade, "You're getting married in a like everybody else." Fourth grade comes, they come for the summer. Dad, I'm getting married under that tree. And once again, the father says, "We don't get married in backyards. We don't get married under trees. We get married in a fifth grade, sixth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade." She goes to Israel one year and every year she tells her dad the same thing and every year her dad tells her the same thing. And she got engaged in the winter and her father booked Westel Shul. You're getting married in Westel. Everything's fine and dandy. But then we know what happened in March 2020. There's no parties in Schulles. She got married in her backyard and the tree was her hoopa because nothing stands in the way of a vision. Nothing stands in the way of a dream when it's a beautiful dream and a dream that you really want. Hashem will make it manifest. We all here have one dream. We have a dream as Amy is as a whole to make the nation a better nation to teach the people to teach the people how to act. But as a specific congregation, our is really the pinnacle of that neighborhood after Ocean Avenue. We are the shares, a borrowed phrase of that neighborhood. We are here on a mission to make sure the next generation has a beautiful synagogue, has a beautiful knice and that's everybody here's vision and that's our dream. We are at a moment in history that we never thought we would make. But guess what? The previous regime handed over the baton and they're trusting us because they saw our in inspiration. They saw how uh we dedicated and devoted we are and they knew that we could take that baton and not just stay status quo. We're here to dream. We're here to have visions and to manifest it and to take our synagogue not one level higher. We're going to take our synagogue bezund levels higher. But it can't be done by everyone just saying, "I'll worry about the other guy. Let him do it. I'll do my thing." Wrong. There's a question in this week's an obvious question. It says, "We know if there are two witnesses in Judaism, it's as if Hashem himself said that that's what it is." When two witnesses that are kosher testify, it's like a million people saying the same thing. You don't need more than two. So the question comes up, you're going to see in the hash tomorrow. What's with theim is a million. So why the answer is because sometimes people think I'm just the third wheel. I'm not going to do anything. It's already established. There's already two witnesses. Who needs me? The Torah tells us if that's what you're thinking, you're wrong because the sha is right next to the shim. You have to be a part of it. And with teamwork, we can make the dream work. I said a story the other night. There was a beautiful hatal dinner and I gave a story that happened a couple of years ago. There was a huge business seminar and they were teaching people all about business, all about growth. And after so many speeches, they decided to take a break. But right before the break, the people in charge said, "Everyone here, we have an interesting preposition for you. We want everyone to start having arm wrestles, and whoever wins the most arm wrestles in this seminar will get a check for 10 grand under the table, under the radar, off the books. Ya Allah, the check is yours. And all the big guys that are working out, they're all excited. We're going to make this happen. We came for business. But yah, let me show them my power. Let me show them the tiger, as they say. And they're all having arm wrestles. And one guy's killing everyone. He has one, two, three, four. Some are winning two, three. One guy won 15 arm wrestles. He already in his mind is thinking what he's going to do with the 10 grand. He's so excited. I'm going to get 10 grand. I definitely won. And they announce afterwards, whoever thinks there's a wi they're a winner, please come up here. And he starts walking up. And you see two skinny, scrawny guys standing up on on stage also. And he's thinking to himself, they must be there to write the check. There's no way they're there because they want to arm wrestle. And he gets up there. They said, "How many did you get?" And he said, "I won 15 arm wrestles. Pay up." And they said, "We would like to pay you, but you're not the winner. You see these two guys, they have 150 wins each." He said, "That's impossible." He said, "That's not impossible." And everyone in the seminar is watching. They said, "We weren't trying. We just went one, one, one, one, one, one." Each guy won 150. So they got the 10 grand, they split it. That's teamwork. And they didn't even work hard. We are here right now on a mission from Hashem to add more to in the world to add more to in the neighborhood. Sometimes you drive by at night and it's a ghost town. And our new regime and everyone together, we're adding more to learning at night. If you don't have to in a synagogue as much as you should, then there's no Torah is the greatest. First thing we said right after we said, "We're taking the baton. We're going to add more Torah. We're going to get Yeshiva guys to come in the evenings and learn. If this guy's a beginner, if this person is advanced, whatever it might be." And we have a woman's class that there are men here that their women come to the class without fail. They host the class in their home. She makes a good kayak, by the way. And the women's class teaches Torah and the women won't miss it. They have they bring their children with them. They bring their uh grandmas with them and they come and the Torah is flourishing. All this we have dreams, but dreams don't manifest without us putting in our effort. And as they say in many fundraisers, we believe it or not already have all the funds needed for our mission. The only problem is it's in your pockets. We got to make it happen. Hashem, we have to do our thing. And there's so many names that I want to mention. And Hashem is mentioning everybody's name here. But there were people for the past few weeks, like I said, not going to work, going all day long, going to the shul, throwing out the Japanese from World War II that don't even know the war's over, hiding in that basement. We're taking that and we're going to turn it into a pentagon of the neighborhood with Torah learning with Torah teaching the children's program the adults program and Hashem Hashem is going to look and say wow that regime beautifully took it to another level. We thank all those in charge. We thank all those working hard. We take thank all those that participate. And don't underestimate the power of what you could do for Hashem's children. Keep up the excellent work and thank you for allowing me to be part of such a beautiful, beautiful venture and mission with bringing the Mashiach even closer. Shabbat shalom.